This site features
our collection of Harper's Weekly newspapers. This collection is an
invaluable archive for those interested in developing a more complete
understanding of the war. Reading news on pages printed within days of
the battles give a new perspective on the war.

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PLAN OF THE UNITED STATES IRON-CLAD, THE
"CHICKASAW."

RECEIVING THE WOUNDED ON BOARD THE "METACOMET,"
AUGUST 5, 1864.

OFF MOBILE.

WE give on this page several
sketches relating to our naval fleet in Mobile harbor. One of these cuts
represents the reception of the wounded on board the Metacomet, after passing
the forts, August 5. The wounded were then transferred to the Pensacola
Hospital. The adjoining illustration is a plan of the Chickasaw--a plan which is
exactly re-

peated in the Winnebago. The
Chickasaw is an ironclad, mounting four guns. Its tonnage is 974 tons. It was
built at Boston by AQUILA ADAMS in 1863. The Winnebago was built at St. Louis in
the same year. The torpedo guards represented in the sketch are young trees cut
down and stripped, with one end of each lashed aboard, and the other ends
connected together by transverse pieces.

Another sketch represents the
Metacomet's boats blowing up the rebel ram Nashville. This cut also gives a view
of a portion of the obstructions in the harbor.

The lower cut is a view of Mobile
city, with the rebel batteries guarding the approaches, and our fleet in the
foreground.

REFUGEES AT CITY POINT.

As our military lines draw closer
each day around the doomed cities of Richmond and Petersburg, the effect is seen
not only in the number of deserters from the rebel army, but in the quantity of
refugees that come into our lines, glad of any opportunity of escape from the
horrible scenes of desolation hitherto surrounding them.

We give on page 701 a
representation of the interior of the United States Sanitary Commission Boat at
City Point, Virginia, at a time when a number of these refugees from Richmond
are availing

themselves of its hospitable
shelter. In speaking of them our artist says : "The people here represented
appear to belong to two distinct classes. One family seemed to be of what is
known as the 'poor whites' in the South ; the other family, if not exactly
belonging to the `Chivalry,' were evidently of a different and higher class.
While they were staying on board, previous to their departure North, and during
which time they received every atten-

tion and kindly consideration not
only from the officials of the United States Sanitary Commission, but from all
who came in contact with them, many opportunities were afforded for eliciting
their opinions respecting the state of things between North and South.

" The only man among them the
head of the family, represented in the extreme back groundwas apparently a
simple hearted, ignorant fellow,

who was inclined to be very
communicative, and who seemed never to have entertained any ill feeling toward
our section — content if people would only allow him to cultivate his little
patch of ground in peace and safety. The women through-out, however, and even
the little children—doubtless well taught hitherto to look upon the Yankees as a
set of bugaboos—were surrounded, seemingly at any rate, by an air of restraint
and haughty de-

pendence, as if they were as much
hurt as pleased by the kindnesses showered upon them. When the man was asked by
a by stander what object he had in coming North, and if he would not have
preferred staying South, one of the young women replied for him, in a rather
pert manner: 'The only thing I came away for was them nasty guns you kept firing
!' When asked again what notion they had of the Yankees before they saw them,
the same

young woman replied : We thought
you was coming to kill us all and use us bad.' Some one said : `How could you
imagine such a thing?' to which she replied : ` How could we know any better?
every body said so !"

"Not one in this family,
confessedly, could read or write, except the man, who said he could read `print'
a little. The women and children had all very nice and regular features, and
your artist must

not think that the pipes I have
put in the mouths of some of the former is a matter of fancy. All the women
smoked, and common clay pipes were to be seen sticking out of lips far too
pretty for such occupation.

"Whatever these people may have
originally thought of the North and its inhabitants, it is evident that they are
now becoming but too glad to exchange for a hideous life in the South the chance
of pursuing their future career among us as independent free men and women, even
though the insensate prejudices of a life may still cling to them a little
longer. Certainly such treatment as these outcasts received from the United
States Sanitary Commission at City Point, and as they will doubtless receive
every where else could it only be known among their deluded people would be
enough to

open the eyes of the most
ignorant, and to touch the hearts of the most vindictive among them." As an
episode to the picture there is introduced in the foreground the figure of a
wounded man, attended by Doctors McDONALD and SWALM, of the United States
Sanitary Commission—an extraneous and voluntary work which these gentlemen are
not unfrequently called on to perform, in addition to their other multifarious
and charitable duties.

Since GRANT'S last movement the
number of desertions from the rebel army has greatly increased.

The Rebel Gun-boat " Morgan."

THE "METACOMET'S" BOATS BLOWING UP THE REBEL RAM
"NASHVILLE," AUGUST 16, 1864.—[SKETCHED BY GEO. WATTERS.]